[Yoshitsune]

  I sat in silence, enjoying the brief moments of stillness that greeted me in the midst of this endless chaos. War in this place is never-ending; the world made sure of that. Battles must be constantly won in order to pillage away XP and levels from our enemies until they are no longer able to fight back.

  That is all this realm is; a killing field that the powers above must gain dominion over to interfere with the power of their direct rivals. Those unlucky enough to be dragged into death loops or placed in unique prisons disappeared forever, but the ranks always seemed to be refilled by those rushing up from below. The populations of each rung were now entirely out of balance. Eventually, they would run out of available bodies. Eventually, a long peace would be won.

  It only mattered if I was to live long enough to see that peace.

  There was death all around me, so much more than I had ever seen in the battles of my life. Every day, millions of demons crossed their weapons and threw out their spells. My sword cried tears of red; the life force of my enemies drained down its metal body and dribbled into pools in the dirt.

  I looked upwards. I was told there was no day and no night; just an endless dusk that hid the passage of time behind its unchanging red hues.

  How long has it been since I arrived here? How many different fights and how many different demons expired on the edge of my blade? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Was I stained so red that it didn’t matter if I got peace?

  “I wanted to stop being violent,” I murmured to myself. “How ironic that all the greatest leaders say that violence is the inevitable cost to enduring peace. I have not felt such a lack of tranquility since I’ve been dragged from the tar pits. Though, this must be a place that you revel in. You haven’t talked to me since you said that you arrived.”

  “She’s muttering to herself again,” Tisiphone said from my right. “Seift, put some sense into her.”

  “What does it matter?” The headless warrior to my left asked in response. “We all need our own ways of dealing with this. It’s not like you don’t shout out the names of your sisters to the sky. Alecto! Megaera! I will see this through to the end!”

  “That’s different,” Tisiphone said with a click of her tongue. “That’s in veneration. Yoshitsune always looks depressed when she mutters to herself. Who were you talking to?”

  “Nobody,” I answer quickly.

  “Of course, nobody,” Tisiphone replied sarcastically.

  The ground below them started to shake as their fallen opponents slowly rose back from the grave. Our fallen comrades rose up to the meet them. I could see the outlines of their aura coming back into color. Their bodies fuzzy in my mind; the quantity so large that it looked like a flash of overlapping color.

  “I hope you all enjoyed your rest,” Seift said. “We have a war to win.”

  I lifted up my blade and flicked the blood off of it. My mana had all but recovered. I was ready to continue in my endless task.

  Lightning coated my body. Snapping energy shot off of me chaotically. I readied my blade, pointing the edge out to my enemies as I lowered my stance. I mentally mapped out all the portals I would use in my mind.

  “Fall back from position and receive new orders.”

  Sir Galahad’s voice rang through a device connected to our heads. It was a one way talking system that only allowed for one or two sentences to pass through. But, it was enough to get the message across.

  “Stand down,” Seift commanded. “We have other places to be.”

  I had already loaded my attack. This power was not something that could be sheathed once it was brandished. I slashed out with my full energy. The arc of my swing fired out into the rising enemies. Upon contact, my lightning bounced from body to body, dealing considerable damage for my rising allies to take advantage of.

  “Ready,” I said, putting my sword away.

  We walked away from the battlefield and towards our base. The castle, known as Camelot 3, was dormant at the moment; the headless beast that the fortress rested upon had its legs folded up and was lying on its stomach. It had been sitting there for some time, ever since we had reached our newest stalemate. The gates opened up at our presence, allowing us entrance into the adorned halls of the castle.

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  It looked much like the Chivalrous Demon’s chambers, paintings of men from overseas hung from pure white walls. A red carpet led us through the castle, wandering and weaving its way through the various rooms before falling down at the main double doors of the war room.

  “What do you think it is this time?” Tisiphone asked whoever felt like listening. “New enemy? A traitor? Perhaps as reinforcements? The other Camelots always hate asking for help.”

  “I hope it’s a singular enemy,” I answered. “I’m growing tired of big battles.”

  “It doesn’t matter what it is,” Seift answered sardonically. “We will perform our commands to their fullest and nothing less.”

  Once again, our presence triggered the door to open on its own. We stepped inside. Various demons stood around a giant table which showed a map of the realm. For me, who could not see, a map was projected directly into my head through the system.

  I felt familiar aura patterns, including Sir Galahad and Dame Genevieve. The majority of the demons were engaged in communications. They used special items or abilities to send messages over the various battlefields that the Chivalrous Demon presided over. Their chatter was incessant, but I had gotten used to drowning out the noise.

  “Greetings Sir Galahad,” Seift announced as the tree of us dropped down on one knee.

  “You may rise,” Sir Galahad permitted. “It’s good to see that you are all well. How fares the battlefield?”

  “Slowly, but steadily, it is pushing in our favor,” Seift reported. “In a few hundred more battles, they will be no more provided that no other factions move to their rescue.”

  “You can count on them doing that,” Sir Galahad bristled. “Bases belonging to the Aspect of Wrath are too close to our position for them to ignore. Just as we move to stymie the advances of others, they move to hold us back from our victories. That’s why I brought you here, to stop a defeat from happening.”

  “What do you require of us?” Tisiphone asked.

  The map in my head zoomed in on the position of Camelot 3. In front of us was a massive cluster of factions and warlords that wanted to destroy us as much as we wanted to destroy them.

  The map shifted to a location further up the side of the mountain. A large fortress covered in the same crosses that adorn the walls of Camelot 3 appeared.

  “It is not one of our fortresses, but one of our allies that needs to be reinforced,” Sir Galahad informed. “Camelot 1 reported receiving distress calls as of a few minutes ago. A major stronghold held by the followers of Mikha’el came under siege recently. The attackers belong to a group that calls themselves ‘Never Heaven.’ They are a radical group underneath the Demon in Red whose sole pursuit is to dismantle all religions and ensure that no peaceful afterlife can be obtained.’

  “A bunch of masochists,” Tisiphone muttered under her breath.

  “The fortress is manned by elite followers of Mikha’el and should have been able to manage this without issue, but the leader of Never Heaven has proven to be formidable.”

  I hold my breath at the image that pops up in my mind. It is a visage of pure hatred; a demon that stops at nothing to destroy her enemies. I had not seen her since we parted ways all those years ago.

  “Vendetta,” I said aloud.

  “Correct,” Sir Galahad said. “Her fires and her high-leveled followers are making this a far closer fight than the fortress is comfortable allowing. They requested support to prevent a potential death loop from the flames if things go wrong. Among the five Camelots, we are only able to spare small groups. I have selected you to be representatives for Camelot 3. Not just due to your stellar record as of late, but also due to your personal connection to the leader, Yoshitsune. You must try everything available to you to bring this woman underfoot.”

  I had expected a conflict like this to happen sooner or later. If it wasn’t going to be Ishmael I saw next, Vendetta was the only other person who would possibly get in our way. That did not stop conflicting emotions to rise within me; a desire to catch up with her competed with the desire to stop her.

  “I understand there might be conflict inside of you,” Sir Galahad said as if he read my mind. “If you want her to avoid whatever punishment Mikha’el’s followers have in mind, I’d recommend getting to her first. There is a Portal that will take you just outside of the fortress, I’ll await the good news.”

  We all offered our bows to Sir Galahad and turned to leave the room. My mind became flooded with strategies and emotions. How was I to kill that woman? I doubted that she had any fondness inside of her to match how I felt.

  I shook my head. If I was to save what I cared for, I had to first kill what I cared for. It was a twisted logic for this twisted world, but I had no choice but to use these rules to my advantage.

  Then, I felt an overwhelmingly strong power through the windows of Camelot 3.

  I was not alone in feeling it. The knights turned to face my direction as the chatter stopped. All of us looked towards the mountain, towards the direction of the fortress we were to travel to.

  It was a familiar feeling; one that I was intimate with. Except, this time, I did not feel the sun. It felt greater than the sun. It felt an eclipse; a great darkness that held the light back and replaced the sky with its own image.

  I didn’t want to believe it. How did it grow to be so immense? How was I supposed to save something that felt so impossible to wrap my arms around.

  “Hurry now!” Sir Galahad shouted.

  I could turn my back to the scene and run towards the Portals, but I knew that it was already far too late. An eruption of flames swept down from the mountain. An infernal roar of an exploding volcano crashed through the windows and deafened all that stood in its path. Heat from miles away washed over us.

  The signature of the fortress was gone, the entire structure turned to rubble.

  “New orders from Camelot 1,” Sir Galahad said. “Every Knight Errant at Camelot’s disposal must move in and eliminate the threat. I must send in the retreat orders. Go now and destroy whatever that monstrosity is.”